Pawel
— Cesar Chavez, on avoiding the pitfalls of the CSO
Cesario Estrada Chavez
— Luis Valdez's "Plan de Delano", read aloud at each stop along Chavez's march to Sacramento
César Chávez
Amereka amanyɛnyi
Чавес, Сесар
I guess the best thing is to keep organizing new groups until they become rotten with personalities, then just move over and begin another group. I really don't know. The only one suggestion I have is to make sure there is always one person who is in charge... I think this way the work of the group moves forward always.
Wells
The union's survival, its very existence, sent out a signal to all Hispanics that we were fighting for our dignity. That we were challenging and overcoming injustice, that we were empowering the least educated among us, the poorest among us. The message was clear. If it could happen in the fields, it could happen anywhere: in the cities, in the courts, in the city councils, in the state legislatures. I didn't really appreciate it at the time, but the coming of our union signalled the start of great changes among Hispanics that are now only beginning to be seen.
Watson
ამერიკელი უფლებადამცველი, მუშებისა და მიგრანტების სოციალური უფლებებისთვის მებრძოლი, ამერიკის შეერთებული შტატების ეროვნული გმირი, ვეგანიზმის მომხრე.
Street
Now we come to this 1981 convention facing yet another assault on our beloved union. An assault even more menacing than the past conventions. More menacing because it is clandestinely organized by those forces whose every wish and desire is our destruction. Obstruction by those evil forces visible and invisible who work at every chance to destroy us—the growers, the teamsters, disaffected former staff, scoundrels, and God knows who, some unwittingly trying to each the same goal—that is to bury our beloved union.
I'm going to tell you something. It's not threatening, it's just plain fucking fact. If this union doesn't turn around and become a movement, I want no part of it. I'll help and everything, but I don't want to be in charge. I want to do something else. I tell you because that's the way I feel.
sindacalista e attivista statunitense
Union founded
— Cesar Chavez's open letter to the grape industry amid the Grape Strike
— Chavez at the 1981 convention
San Luis, Arizona, U.S.
America ninsala hachinima tuuntumdi so ŋun nyɛ doo
americký aktivista za práva Latinoameričanů
líder sindical americano (1927-1993)
yes
Bruns
Yuma, Arizona, U.S.
left
right
Chavez in 1979
syndicaliste paysan américain
Cesar Chavez
— Martin Luther King's telegram to Chavez after the latter announced his fast in February 1968
WE SHALL OVERCOME. Across the San Joaquin Valley, across California, across the entire Southwest of the United States, wherever there are Mexican people, wherever there are farm workers, our movement is spreading like flames across [a] dry plain. Our PILGRIMAGE is the MATCH that will light our cause for all farm workers to see what is happening here, so that they may do as we have done. The time has come for the liberation of the poor farm worker. History is on our side. MAY THE STRUGGLE GO ON! VIVA LA CAUSA!
— Chavez arguing with the executive board to reform the UFW in 1977
American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist (1927–1993)
pekerja pertanian, pemimpin buruh, dan aktivis hak-hak sipil Meksiko-Amerika
Zerzan
President of the United Farm Workers
[Chavez's] dream was to found a labor union of farmworkers. He had no money, no political connections, and no experience. He was not a particularly dynamic personality and had no special talent as a public speaker. The dream, he knew, was almost fanciful. Nevertheless, through determination, grit, and a dogged will to win, he forged a movement that successfully challenged powerful entrenched economic and political interests and helped thousands of Mexican Americans to new cultural self-awareness.
セサール・チャベス
سيزار تشافيز
Olóṣèlú
американски синдикалец, водач на Обединетите земјоделски работници
Onye ndu ndị ọrụ America, onye nhazi obodo, onye ọchụnta ego, na onye na-akwado ikike obodo ndị Latino America
The men and women who have suffered and endured much and not only because of our abject poverty but because we have been kept poor. The color of our skins, the languages of our cultural and native origins, the lack of formal education, the exclusion from the democratic process, the numbers of our slain in recent wars — all these burdens generation after generation have sought to demoralize us, to break our human spirit. But God knows we are not beasts of burden, we are not agricultural implements or rented slaves, we are men. And mark this well [..] we are men locked in a death struggle against man's inhumanity to man in the industry you represent. And this struggle itself gives meaning to our life and ennobles our dying.
Ospino
You stand today as a living example of the Gandhian tradition with its great force for social progress and its healing spiritual powers. My colleagues and I commend you for your bravery, salute you for your indefatigable work against poverty and injustice, and pray for your health and your continuing service as one of the outstanding men of America.
פעיל זכויות עובדים בקליפורניה
Amerikaans vakbondsbestuurder (1927-1993)
Amerika amanyɔni
労働運動家
US-amerikanischer Gründer der Landarbeitergewerkschaft United Farm Workers
— Cesar Chavez, 1984
— Jerry Brown on his relationship with Chavez
Chavez pulled up to my Laurel Canyon house in an old car with a German shepherd dog named Huelga—Spanish for strike. We talked for several hours about whether the proposed state law or any labor law could actually help farm workers. Chavez repeatedly said that his boycott was a much better organizing tool because the law would always be corrupted by the powerful economic interests that control politics. I argued with him and said that a law would be his best protection. He finally agreed but remained skeptical.
líder campesino estadounidense
세자르 차베스
amerikansk fagforbundsleder
— Roger Bruns, 2005